


Beard

by 221B_johnlock_st



Series: Diversity [4]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Bisexual Male Character, F/M, Family Feels, Greg is gay, M/M, Open Marriage, Open Relationships, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Slash, Threesome - F/M/M, greg is married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:35:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23812408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/221B_johnlock_st/pseuds/221B_johnlock_st
Summary: Greg is a gay man happily married to a woman who he loves, and when they have difficulties conceiving a second child they employ the help of one of her coworkers. The ups and downs of living as a thrupple with two children, a gay man, a bisexual man and an asexual lady. What will happen when the oldest child starts to question the dynamic of their relationship?
Relationships: Greg Lestrade/Greg Lestrade's Wife, Greg Lestrade/Original Female Character, Greg Lestrade/Original Male Character
Series: Diversity [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1172438
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	Beard

**Author's Note:**

> This is to establish a backstory to the greg/mycroft relationship that will take place later in this series. Had a bit of fun with it all and the inner workings of a poly relationship.

He’s known he was gay since he was ten, the day after his birthday party and he was flipping through the skater magizen his aunt gave him and he fell in love with a 12 year old boy named Drew who was featured and seemed so sweet. A year later he met Lily and a friendship slowly progressed until one day he was sitting on her bed and she told him that she was in love with him. He loved her too, he decided. He loved her smile and her personality, and he’d gone 16 year without having a boyfriend, and most importantly he was happy with the idea of spending the rest of his life with his best friend. Here he is 9 years later, 7 years into a marriage with the woman he loves, a 5 year old daughter, and 1 year old son and a hole that he doesn’t think he can ever fill.  
The two years Lily and him dated was filled with movie nights and cuddles and sharing stories on a ratty mattress that Greg had gotten when he turned 14. They never had sex, and they haddent kissed on the mouth untill the day they said ‘I do’. They decided to start trying for a baby a month after their wedding. After a year they got the news about Addie. She was the second girl he had ever loved, and when she went to preschool Lil sat him down for a chat.

“Let’s try for another Greg, A little brother or sister for Addison.” He could tell she was trying to hold back her excitement for him. It had been so hard with Addison, they had accidentally let it slip that they were trying and the word spread, it was a year of “So are you two exspecting yet?” Lily always replied with a grin and a “It will happen when we're ready”. Their relatives had taken it with religious sentiment, but little did they know that Greg couldn’t even maintain an erection long enough to have a hope of pregnancy. After one particular night and yet another failed attempt Greg had excused himself to the bathroom where he cried for half an hour. The next day Lily had come home with a little bag that had a few little blue pills in them. Greg had been horrified, his wife had resorted to illegally buying drugs. Lily told him that her co-worker had handed her the bag after finding out they were having trouble conceiving with a wink and whispered comment about how long it took her husband to go to the doctor about his ‘condition’. The story calmed him and two months later they stood in the bathroom staring at a white stick with two blue lines with huge grins on their faces. He didn’t know if he could do that again.

“ I would love to have another baby around but I don't know if I could Lil,” She knew he was gay, she had long before they started dating.

“We can just do it like we did last time, I still have the pills.” She was his best friend. He loved her so much, there was only one person in the world he prioritized over Lily and that was Addison, whose life would be turned upside down if he lost his job.

“I’m just not willing to take that risk this time Lily, and who's to say it’ll even work, I’m not not 19 anymore. It’s not as easy ” His eyes reddened and his head was in his hand as his eyes started to water. “God, I’m sorry Lil, You deserve more” A hand was on his shoulder

“Greg, you’re my best friend, I love you, nothing will ever change that. Marriage has bumps, and if our only bump is that we don’t have sex, well I’d say that's a pretty small bump.” They laughed at that, and talked some more. Eventually they decided to try without the drugs. It was a week of Greg watching some adult entertainment before, then it turned into watching it during. Two weeks of trying and Greg flopped down next to her in bed and she cuddled up to him. They did this sometimes, cuddled naked together something oddly nice about being so vulnerable and trusting. Lily’s head bobbed with the movement of his chest as Greg sighed.

“This isn’t working Lil” He could feel her look up at him but he couldn’t meet her gaze. She grabbed his hand and they sat in silence for a moment.

“What if I told you I had a new idea.” Greg looked at her “Don’t look at me like that, nothing crazy just maybe, well, you said the fantasy doesn't really work for you anymore, so what if you didn’t have to rely on fantasie anymore.”

“What do you mean.” He searched her eyes and he could see her hesitance.

“Well, there’s this guy at work, the gym teacher, you remember him right, Paul?” 

“I remember him, yes, why, what-what does he have to do with this?”

“Well we've been talking for a while now, and well a few months ago he was in this relationship, well, with a married couple. He’s bisexual, after he told me about this relationship he had, i started telling him about us, and well our perdicament and he offered to help, you know, move things along if we wanted to. He’s a great guy Greg, and you can meet him before we make a decision, obviously. I Just think this might help.” Greg stared at her for a moment. “Greg” he didn’t reply just looked at her “Gregory you’re scaring me”

“Sorry Lil, I just, you would do that for me. You, well, you were a virgin until we got married and you’d be okay with having a three way.” Lily chuckled

“Greg, I wasn’t a virgin because I felt like I owed it to ‘god’ or some sence of moral obligation. I’m just not very interested in sex. I want a family and I think making a child is beautiful but it’s not something I’d do for fun, and if Paul is a part in making that child it’s just an amazing honey.” Greg smiled.

‘Okay, yeah, I’ll give it a shot... let's give it a shot.”

It felt oddly like a first date, he was nervous, had tried on five different outfits, one of which was a shirt and tie and when Lily walked in on him in his boxers and an off white collared shirt and a black tie she chuckled and reminded him that they were just meeting him for coffee not at a four star restaurant. He had settled on a light blue polo shirt that was just a little tight and some slime black jeans. 

“You look amazing Greg, He’s gonna love you.” Greg blushed 

“How old did you say he was”

“35, honey’

“God, what if i'm not experienced enough, I've never been with a man before Lil, I’ll be like a fumbling teen again, what if he expects me to know everything.”

“I doubt he’ll expect you to know anything honey.” Greg side eyed her 

“Why?”

“I told him, Greg, that we’d only ever been with each other” Greg’s cheeks flamed red

“So, he’ll know, I can't even fake that I know some stuff, I was gonna go fake it till I make it rout Lil. God he probably laughed. Never mind, maybe I can get a prescription. There are some freak christian doctors out there that would want to ‘cure’ me im sure.”

“Greg” She grabbed both his hands “You know what he said when i told him.” Greg just looked at her, but she leaned in and whispered “He said it was so hot that he would get to pop your cherry” A thrill ran through his body. “Now come on we don’t wanna keep him waiting”

They meet Paul and the sparks flew, they meet a few more times over drinks and the likes, and finally the date was set, a test run of sorts, no baby making pressure just a little bit of fooling around and if it led to something it did.

Addie went to her grandma's house at 5, and Paul was due to come around 6. Greg was gitty, and Lily was excited, they opened up the wine at 5:30 and poured themselves a glass. There was a knock at the door, and Greg went rim rod straight. 

Lily kissed him on the forehead “Calm down honey, nothing has to happen if you don’t want it to” He knew that, he wasn’t nervous because he didn’t want to do it, he was nervous because of how much he wanted to do it. Lily was opening the door, and he stood up. Paul was gorgeous. He was taller than Greg by 4 or 5 inches, He has a slim figure but if his arms were anything to go by he was hiding strength under the polos he wore. His hair was more red than brown but in the darker lighting you could barely tell. Paul was only 11 years older than him, which didn’t seem like a lot of time but the peppered hair made him seem years older and that only turns Greg on more. Lily was whispering something to him in the doorway and Paul shot him a few short glances before nodding to Lily, agreeing apparently with whatever she had said.

Paul walked over to him and Greg almost got out a greeting but Paul pulled him into a kiss before he could think of what to say. It was intense, there was only a moment of closed mouth kissing before Paul nibbling at his bottom lip so he could slip his tongue across it. Paul had one hand cradling the back of Greg's head and the other was resting on his chest. Gregs hand had also managed to make its way to Paul's hips without his knowledge. Paul pulled away and greg had to stop himself from following

“Lily told me you were worried of what I might think, well I'll tell you..” He leans in and whispers “You’re a natural” And all the hair stood up on the back of his neck. Paul pulled back more this time but left the hand that was at the back of Greg's head resting on his shoulder as Greg just stared at him.

They hit the night off wonderfly clicking in bed just as well as they did in social situations. Greg also got his first hand job from a man while his wife held his hand and ran her other hand up and down his back.

A couple months later and Lily was pregnant with Gilbert, their son, who came with a head of ginger hair which was odd because no one in his family had red hair. They laughed about it for a while but when Gil turned 6 months old greg sat Lily down for a chat. Addi was already in bed and Gil was dozing off in his down stairs crib.

“I think Gil isn’t mine” Greg said with a little less style than he intended

She just stared at him with tears welling in her eyes “I don’t, I don’t understand why you would think that Greg. I swear I’ve been faithful. I-I”

He cut her off “God no, no Lil, I mean I think that Gilbert is Paul's son” Lily looked shocked.

“How would that be possible, I mean, i didn’t do anything with him, you were there you saw” She was looking over to Gil’s crib

“No, you didn’t do anything with him, but I did and then we did, and we didn't exactly take the precautions that we should have to prevent something like this” 

“Oh my god” she starts crying, and Greg holds her “we have to tell him Greg, Paul deserves to know that Gil’s his son” she was wiping away her tears.

“I know honey” 

They still talked to paul. A lot actually, he asked how Lily was doing during the pregnancy, and they met up for lunch and dinner many times before Gilbert came along. They hadn’t seen him since Gilbert was born, and maybe subconsciously it was on purpose, ginger hair and blue eyes it was surprising that they hadn't seen it sooner.

They called Paul the next day and asked him what time would be good to meet up, Friday for lunch at their normal place. Lily was still on maternity leave and Greg took a half day, who knew how long something like this would take.

Friday rolled around and Greg felt like he was gonna vomit, he had gotten his wife pregnant with another man's sperm on accident. How do you explain that? He loved Gil so much, and he didn’t want to be “just a stepdad”.

They sat down and waited for Paul to arrive. He walked up to the table with the bright smile he always did, but when he saw Greg and lilly it dropped off his face. Apparently they weren’t hiding it well.

“What’s wrong” He asked as soon as he sat down

“There’s something we need to tell you,” Lily said, setting her hand on his across the table. “Gilbert is yours”

He stared blankly at both of them for a moments “That’s impossible”

“He’s got red hair Paul, no one in my family is ginger, not my parents not my grandparents. Lily’s mom is a red head though” a Greg said 

“I… Wow” Paul slumped back in his chair “I mean, you’re sure?” they both nodded in response, “I’m not sure what to say, it’s your choice obviously, I mean, this was an accident, this isn’t what you agreed too”

“He’s your son Paul, you deserve to be in his life if you want” Lily said squeezing his hand.

“Can I meet him?”

“Ofcourse” they both said 

They set up a time that worked for all of them, Addison had met Paul before when he would come over for social visits and sometime they would have him over for dinner, but because of the nature of the visit today they had Addi stay at Lily's parent’s place for the night.

He came over at 4, prime baby hours, Gil had usually just woken from his nap and had a dipper change and a quick snack so he was usually in a great mood. Not today tho it was likely that he could sense the stress radiating off his parents which put him off. When Paul showed up he was wailing as Lily rocked him on her hip and Greg was trying to coo at him.

The knock at the door only intensified his screaming, and Greg looked at Lily with a worried look, and she smiled softly back at him as he stepped into the foire and out of sight.

Greg opened the door and Paul stood behind it looking just as anxious as he felt he was holding a soft blue rabbit that had rubber feet for chewing and a rattle for a tummy. He smiled at that, Gil loved raddels. 

“Come on in, he’s a little fussy right now but he’ll wear himself out before long.” Paul stepped through the door on the invitation and toed off his shoes. Before turning to Greg.

They had maintained somewhat of a physical relationship through the length of the pregnancy, exchanging light pecs and other affectionate exchanges that stepped outside of the realm of friendship. Paul had asked after they got the pregnancy back positive if they wanted to continue a physical and romantic relationship with him. Lily hadn't been interested in the physical aspects of things although she did say that him and greg had hit it off in bed and she was fine if they continued that relationship. He wasn’t so sure where they stood now that they knew Paul was Gil’s dad.

After a moment Paul broke the silence “Hey, I know this is a lot, trust me i know,” he laughed a little “But this doesn’t have to change anything. I’ve been thinking about it, and I would love to be a part of Gil’s life, but he’s your son and I would never take that from you. Maybe I could be Paul the funny uncle that takes him every other weekend to go have fun? We’ll talk to lily about it too but, i just wanted to talk to you about it first, it just seemed right. I care about you Greg and I would never want to see you hurt. He’s holding his hand with the one that isn’t holding the baby toy, and Greg felt like he was going to cry.

“Thank you,” he whispered “You don't know how much this means to me” He was suddenly overcome with the urge to hug him, so he did.

After a moment he pulled away and apologized but Paul put his hand on gregs cheek and wiped away the single tear running down his face before leaning down to kiss him. They were broken apart by a laugh

“Okay boys, there's a baby to meet here, you can have your fun later” Lily said with a surprisingly calm Gil on her hip.

Things transitioned very smoothly from there, although Paul rarely spent his weekends with Gil away from Greg and Lily and they fell into a relationship too easily. He stayed at their house most weekends he started off kipping it on the couch but as he became a more regular guest he was invited into their bed usually happily wedged between greg and the wall. Roughly 4 months after Paul met Gil for the first time, Addi rushed into their room on a saturday morning and wedged herself between greg and lily.

Lucky after a close call they all started wearing proper pajamas to bed rather than whatever state of dress they were in after night time activities. It wasn't uncommon for Addi to invite herself into bed in the morning there had been a few awkward questions at first. “Why is Paul sleeping in your bed, his bed is down stairs” referring to the fold out couch. Lily had shuffled slightly at the time to look over their daughters mop of curls to see Greg and Paul looking wide eyed at her. She sighed “Well honey, that bed isn’t very comfortable.” The next weeked she had asked why daddy only kisses Paul when he has to go to work on the weekends. Both boys had stumbled over themselves to answer but lily had cut in “That’s how they say goodbye to each other, Like how me a daddy hugs me, and picks you and Gil up and spins you around.” lily shrugged and cuddled into her parents. Usually the questions were off the top of her head but today they could tell she had one pre thought out. She was looking between Paul and Greg and then stared at Paul intently which made him squirm a little when he realized it.

“It’s not nice to stare at honey,” Lily reminded her daughter. 

“Sorry” she said to Paul who smiled thanked her and rolled over to try to catch a bit more shut eye. He felt the shuffle and figured it was the family settling in with their new addition and then he felt the tap on his shoulder, and he could tell by the size it was Addison. He rolled back over. 

“Hello, miss Addison, how can i help you?” He said with a smile. Paul was great with kids, and he got along fine with Addison often including her in the things he did with Gil so she didn’t feel left out. She laughed and hid back behind her father's sleeping body. Greg woke for nothing but his yard ringtone, and the smell of bacon on the weekends. 

“I have a question” Addison whispered seeming shy now

“Shoot kiddo” They had all gotten pretty used to her questions: why do you eat breakfast with us, why does Gil get to go to your house sometimes, why does daddy hold your hand. They were easy to answer. Because it's nice, because we like to, because it makes us happy.

“Are you daddy's boyfriend?” Paul felt like the air had been knocked out of him. Gregs head shot up from his place on the pillow, Paul chalked it up to parently intuition, like when Greg would roll out of bed 30 seconds before Gil started crying.

“Where’d you learn that from honey” Lily asked while greg and Paul reeled, this question she couldn't answer for them

“We were talking about families in class yesterday and Serena said that her mommy had a boyfriend. Peter asked what a boyfriend was and Serena said that her moms boyfriend sleeps over and kisses her goodbye like daddy does to paul, she also said that he loves her mommy. Do you love daddy?” She looked at Paul again and his mouth fell open. “I have a project to draw my family and Mrs.turner said I could draw Paul if he was daddy’s boyfriend.

Lily got out of bed and picked up Addison “How about we let Daddy and Paul wake up and we go have some breakfast” And Addi nodded in contentment then they were gone.

“... that was a lot,” Paul said softly and greg just looked his hands

“I think we should talk about this,”

“ I think you should go”

They said at the same time

Paul looked over at him with wide eyes “You-you think I should go? Greg it’s normal for kids to be confused about stuff like this, you don't need to make any harsh decisions right now.”

“No, no, nothing about this is normal, I’m married, Paul. I have a wife and Mrs. Turner knows that, and now she thinks I'm having an affair, with a man no less. We should have never continued this after Gil was born.” He stood up and walked over to the closet, at this point he was talking to himself “Putting my girl at risk just to get a leg over, god” he grabbed his work jacket and pulled it on over his pajamas. “I need some fresh air” And he was gone leaving Paul with a look of hurt on his face. He made an escape out the back door and walked just past the view of the kitchen window and pulled out a cigarette, he quit, years ago, but in a bad case a few months ago the DI offered him one and he didn't refuse. He bought his own pack the next day, but only ever smoked at work.

He was alone only about 5 minutes before he heard the back door open. He dropped the cigarette on the ground and tried to suddenly blow out the puff of smoke. 

“You’re not sly Greg, I’ve known you were smoking again.” Greg sighed, partially because he'd been caught but also because lily would be mad if he lit another.

“Since when?”

“A few months ago, Paul pulled me aside and said he could taste it on your breath. He was worried” Gregs head fell “ he left you know, stopped to tell me to check on you, and said he’d be in touch about next weekend and taking Gil to his parents.” Greg ran his hand through his hair “ He had been crying” She said finally

“God,” he looked up “crying?” He had never seen Paul cry, he on the other hand had broken down many times in front of Paul. “Did he seem okay.” 

“As okay as someone who’s just been dumped can be, Greg” he put a hand on his shoulder “Do you love him?” Greg’s head shot up 

“I love you” Lily smiled

“I love you too, but that's not what I asked’

There was a long pause and greg lusted for another cigarette so he could fill the silence with the sweet rush of nicotine instead he awnsered “I think I do, is that, Is that bad?”

“No,” she rubs his shoulder “you should talk to him Greg” 

He head hung at his shoulders “I know, I just need some time, just a couple of hours to get my head on straight.” 

Lily smiled softly “take your time”

Greg did little things that kept him busy while he thought through everything. Finally at 4:30 pm Greg headed over to Paul’s apartment, to talk to him, maybe invite him back to the house for dinner.

When Greg arrived at the apartment he felt a nervous flutter pass through him. He walked up the steps and hesitated in front of Paul's door. He knocked all the same, he could hear a shuffle behind the door and some muffled voice and he frowned a little. He didn't think Paul had a roommate. A moment later Paul opened the door in a robe with a frown

“...Greg… what are you doing here?” He closed the door so it rested on his hip and the view of the apartment was shielded. Greg had a sinking suspicion in his gut, and if there's anything he's learned while being a cop it’s that his gut is rarely wrong

“Sorry, is this a bad time?” He asked, hoping to god he was wrong, hoping that Paul would invite him in to talk.

“Yeah, a little. Is this about Gil?” Paul stood up a little straighter realizing his son might be hurt.

“No, No, I just came by to apologize. I didn’t mean those things I said earlier about us, about you. I guess I had time to think about it an-”

“Paul” A small mousy voice called from behind the door “Are you coming back to bed?” He heard the woman's voice change from normal to seductive.”

“Listen Greg, there’s no hard feelings, really. I got in over my head and expected more out of the situation than I should have. I know how this all works, been through it a million times. Some guy marries a woman young but cant get the fantasy of being with another man out of his head so he finds someone like me to scratch the itch. He gets confronted by his sexuality and throws me to the curb. I'll give you the gold star though buddy, you really had me going there, though I could be part of the family or something” He chuckled darkly and Greg is left speechless with a door slammed in his face. In the distance he could hear the girl from before giving off a high pitched whine finally pushed him to walk away.

Paul came every other weekend to pick up Gil and Greg alway found something to be busy with while Lily handed him off. He started working more to distract himself from what he was feeling and soon his relationship with lily started to deteriorate. Eventually 4 years later he moved out. Him and lily were still married and we spent the weekend with the kids when he wasn't working. Lily had told him to find someone new, another man that he could spend the rest of his life with. Really Greg had brought up moving out because he wanted to stay in an apartment closer to the yard. His commute was nearly 45 minutes in good traffic, and usually he didn't get off until 6 and by the time he got home the kids were already in bed. It had thrown off their whole schedule as they tried to get out of bed to see him. It was better for the family, better for him. He was content leaving the rest of his life with no romantic partner, then he met one Sherlock Holmes who happened to have the most attractive person he had ever met as a brother.


End file.
